Psalm 18:20-24

“The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His ordinances were before me, And I did not put away His statutes from me. I was also blameless with Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes” (Psalm 18:20-24).

Federal Visionists love this passage because they think that David is speaking of himself, and therefore, it is proper for all Christians to speak this way. This is pure folly.

The Reformed faith has always insisted that man is totally depraved. This means that we can never say anything good about ourselves. Yet, look at what David attributes to “himself”:

· Righteousness
· Cleanness of his hands
· Keeping the ways of the Lord
· Not departing from the Lord’s statutes
· Blameless with the Lord
· Keeping himself from his iniquity
· His righteousness (again)
· Cleanness of his hands in the Lord’s eyes (again)

We know that “there is none righteous” (Romans 3:10) and that “all our righteousness is as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Thus, it is quite impossible that David is saying all of this about himself.

This passage is probably a prophecy about Jesus, because only Jesus kept the Covenant of Works perfectly. Another possibility is the David is speaking about his position in Christ. We have pointed out that other passages (like this and this and this) where someone claims to be “righteous,” they are obviously speaking of positional righteousness, not intrinsic righteousness.

This brings up an important point. When someone asks us how we are doing, we often respond, “good.” Is this an accurate response? No! As Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18), so none of us should ever hint that we are “good.” It would be better to reply, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.”